Promiscuous Fiction: The Runaway Stories of Jonathan Lethem is a compilation of four short skits about ten minutes long each. It’s really an ideal way to put on a Fringe show and made me walk away feeling I got the most out of the hour.
“The Spray” is about a couple who are victims of a home robbery. It takes a turn for the fantastical when the two decide to use the can of spray left by the police, which is supposed to detect what’s lost, on each other. What shows up are their exes stuck to their bodies, and points to the fact that we never are able to shake the people who once were part of our lives.
“Planet Big Zero” is about two high school friends who have grown up and apart and don’t have much in common anymore than high school. Again, it’s another very relatable story of the human experience.
“Crab’s Last Stand” is easily the most enjoyable of the four. The skit opens with a TV producer and his assistant discussing a man named Crab, whose status of a fleeting celebrity is rapidly fading. When Crab, played by Ryan Robert Nelson, walked onto the stage in a crab costume, I couldn’t help but LOL. It’s such a great sketch, and is a microcosm of why the Fringe is so awesome.
The last sketch, “Inadequate Passion,” is about a husband and wife who struggle in their relationship through the apopaclypse. It’s not the strongest of the bunch, but fits in nicely with the rest of Lethem’s repertoire.
Read Jay Gabler’s review of Promiscuous Fiction.
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